The Vision: The creed of unbelief: "Thy record is not true."

Image: Daffodils, North Garden, Virginia, March 2018

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on John 8:12-20.

Then spake Jesus again unto them saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (John 8:12).

The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true (John 8:13).

The Pharisees rejected Christ’s claim to be the light of the world by saying, “Thy record is not true.”

Every unbeliever says this in one way or another. We might call this the creed of unbelief, or the manifesto of unbelief: “Thy record is not true.”

The polar opposite of this would be Peter’s confession in John 6:69: “And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”

It can be a pretty dauting things to make that confession. Maybe some of you remember the time when it dawned on you: Hey, you know, I really believe this. I really believe the gospel. I know this is not some fairy tale, but this is true. This is the truth. And I believe in Christ!

But have you ever thought about the obverse side of that? If you do not now identify yourself as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are someone who says to Christ with the Pharisees: “Thy record is not true.”

Is your spirit going to rest easy with being in a state of unbelief or, as Christ called it, “walking in darkness”?

Calvin called Christ’s declaration to be the light of the world “a beautiful commendation of Christ,” for, he adds, “since we are all blind by nature, a remedy is offered, by which we may be freed and rescued from darkness and made partakers of the true light.”

So, we are left to ask: Which sphere are you in? Where are you walking? Are you in the darkness? Or do you have the light of life?

Has Christ done and is he continuing to do a work of spiritual transformation and translation in your life?

Do you respond to Christ’s claims in faith as Peter did in John 6:69?

Or, do you say to Christ as those Pharisees did, “Thy record is not true.”?

And are you willing to live with the consequences of such a stance?

It is costly to follow Christ. But it is costlier still to stay in the darkness and NOT to follow him.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle